A note to readers

On the CRB’s return to regular publication, November 2013

This November 2013 issue marks not a rebirth, and perhaps not even a revival, but certainly a reawakening for The Caribbean Review of Books. Our previous issue, dated January 2012, appeared twenty-two months ago — a long hiatus which some readers may have taken for an actual expiration. (I confess to having entertained such apprehensions myself.)

The CRB’s return to active publication is possible thanks to the support of the Bocas Lit Fest, the Trinidad-based non-profit company which produces an annual literary festival in Port of Spain and other events for Caribbean writers and readers, and also administers three Caribbean-wide literary awards. The Bocas Lit Fest’s support for the CRB is part of its broader initiative to support Caribbean writing and publishing.

Both magazine and festival have the same fundamental aims: to build a readership for books from and about the Caribbean, bring new writers to a broader audience, and provoke conversation about literature and its place in society. Though supported by Bocas, the CRB will maintain its editorial independence. But inevitably — and not only because I serve as both CRB editor and Bocas programme director — each will continue to inform the other, to mutual benefit.

This present issue includes several reviews originally commissioned in 2012 — my thanks to the contributors for their patience — alongside more recently written pieces. Given the sheer number of Caribbean books now published annually, and the rate at which new volumes appear, we can’t hope to run full-length reviews of many of the titles released during our long hiatus. A special “Also noted” column highlights the most significant of these.

With this issue we also return to our old quarterly schedule, publishing in February, May, August, and November.

Since 2004, in twenty-one print and nine online editions, the CRB has paid serious, sustained attention to contemporary Caribbean literature and culture, via reviews and essays, supplemented by original poems and fiction, and interviews with writers and others. As we navigate towards the horizon of our tenth anniversary and beyond, our mission and our method remain the same.